BY CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY
DETROIT FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

Robert Bobb, the emergency financial manager for DPS, today attempted to quell some of the fear resulting from his deficit elimination plan that calls for placing as many as 62 kids in a class by 2014.

In response to a Free Press inquiry, Bobb said that classes will not balloon to 60 or more children per class. He did not say how large they might become, however.

Bobb said the budget cuts cited were approved in August when the district needed a state-approved deficit elimation plan in order to be able to borrow money to shore up the district’s cashflow. He said he is working on a new budget that is due to the state by May 31 and that he expects to get savings from sharing some services with the city and the Wayne County Regional Educational Service agency.

Such savings – an undetermined amount as negotiations are ongoing – would make it unnecessary to increase class sizes to 62 in high school, he said.

“At the end of the day, that will not be the case. We know academically, educationally, it’s not good for children,” Bobb said of such a drastic increase in class sizes.

Parents should expect school closures to continue – as many as 70 of the 142 buildings – but the last budget item to be cut will be classroom teachers, he said.

“We will do everything financially and humanly possible not to have 60 children in a classroom.”